It's taken me some months (years?) to finish Parable of the Sower (part one of the series) for a couple of reasons. One, I like to read before bed and my brain likes to carry my evening thoughts into my dreams making for disrupted sleep. Second, this series feels to me like one possible path our world could have taken during the 2020-2021 Pandemic lockdown which triggered my fear response. Finishing the book in Spring 2023, I am so glad that I stayed with it and very much enjoy Octavia E. Butler's voice, writing style, and reality check. Or is it science fiction?
Now on to Part 2: Parable of the Talents. Wish me luck!
Parable of the Sower
(GRAND CENTRAL PUBLISHING, PAPERBACK, APRIL 2019)
This highly acclaimed post-apocalyptic novel of hope and terror from award-winning author Octavia E. Butler “pairs well with 1984 or The Handmaid’s Tale” (John Green, New York Times)
Now with a new foreword by N. K. JEMISIN
When global climate change and economic crises lead to social chaos in the early 2020s, California becomes full of dangers, from pervasive water shortage to masses of vagabonds who will do anything to live to see another day. Fifteen-year-old Lauren Olamina lives inside a gated community with her preacher father, family, and neighbors, sheltered from the surrounding anarchy. In a society where any vulnerability is a risk, she suffers from hyperempathy, a debilitating sensitivity to others’ emotions.
Precocious and clear-eyed, Lauren must make her voice heard in order to protect her loved ones from the imminent disasters her small community stubbornly ignores. But what begins as a fight for survival soon leads to something much more: the birth of a new faith . . . and a startling vision of human destiny.
Comments